Forging the Link (FTL)

Forging the Link: Linking the Economic Benefits of Low Impact Development and Community Decisions

﻿﻿This project documents, through a series of case studies,
the advantages of Low Impact Development (LID) in the economic terms of
how municipal land use decisions are commonly made.

In
addition to the environmental and water quality benefits for which Low
Impact Development (LID) is so commonly known, considerable economic,
infrastructure, and adaptation planning benefits are also being realized
through the incorporation of LID-based strategies. Forging the Link
demonstrates the substantive economic benefits—for both construction
budgets and project life-cycle costs—that are increasingly being
observed by municipalities, commercial developers, and others when using
Green Infrastructure for stormwater management. The FTL curriculum
demonstrates the use of LID as a means for building community resiliency
to changing climates in a water resources management context.

The FTL Curriculum demonstrates:

The ecological benefits of LID with respect to protection of water quality, aquatic habitat and watershed health

The economic benefits of using both traditional and innovative infrastructure to manage stormwater

The capability
of LID to be used as a climate change adaptation planning tool to
minimize the stress to urban stormwater infrastructure.